RT Libyan military attaché in UAE defects to rebels as NATO pounds Qaddafi compound http://is.gd/69XkdA #fail
RT@carlesdijous: NYT - Qaddafi Says He’s in ‘a Place You Cannot Reach’. nyti.ms/lyAMIe #Libya - Hell, perhaps?
There had been rumors that Colonel Qaddafi had been killed or disabled in an earlier bombing sortie by NATO planes.
The early morning blasts shook the windows of a hotel where journalists are staying in the capital. Two plumes of white smoke could be seen rising above the city following the blasts, as emergency vehicle sirens wailed and sporadic gunfire rang out, according to AFP. The strikes came after Libyan state TV on Wednesday showed footage it said was of Mr. Qaddafi meeting with tribal leaders, the first new video of him aired since an April 30 air strike that the regime termed an attempt on his life. The regime said that strike killed his son Saif al-Arab and three of his grandchildren, in “a direct operation to assassinate the leader of this country.” Sources close to Mr. Qaddafi have denied that his grandchildren were killed. The colonel is not beyond exaggerating claims of the demise of family members at the hands of foes, say analysts.
State TV said the Wednesday footage was of a meeting between the 68-year-old colonel and tribal dignitaries from the east of Libya, an area held by protesters seeking his ouster. Many tribal leaders in that region have aligned themselves with the rebels.
A Libyan official told AFP the video was shot around 7:30 pm (1730 GMT) on Wednesday.
A Defiant Qaddafi Says He Survived Attack http://nyti.ms/iOAGPz
Mr. Bilqasem’s announcement came as NATO air strikes hit the compound in Tripoli where Colonel Qaddafi resides, killing six people and wounding 10 others, government officials said.
In the rebel stronghold of Benghazi a French private security contractor was shot dead and four others were arrested in a murky incident at a checkpoint in the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi, officials and other sources said Thursday. “During a police check in Benghazi last night, five French nationals were detained,” French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said, according to Agence France-Presse.
“One of them was wounded by a bullet and died overnight in a hospital in Benghazi,” while the other four remain in detention, he added, confirming a report by a doctor at the hospital.
The French statement did not say who fired the bullet that killed the contractor in Benghazi, which is far from the frontline in the Libyan conflict and which at the moment is a relatively safe city.
Libyan TV said that one of the NATO air strikes on different sites in Tripoli had caused damage to the North Korean embassy. Mustafa Abdul Jalil of the National Transitional Council (NTC) met with Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain to discuss the possibility of setting up a London office, British officials have confirmed.
Mr. Abdul Jalil also met Foreign Secretary William Hague of Britain to examine measures agreed at last week’s Contact Group meeting in Rome. Four explosions in quick succession had rocked Tripoli early Thursday as NATO jets flew overhead, after Colonel Qaddafi appeared on state TV for the first time in almost two weeks, ending doubt over his fate since a NATO air strike killed his son.
